- CIS Tower
The CIS Tower is the second-tallest building in
Manchester ,England . Measuring 387 feet (118 m) tall, the glass roofed building is home to Co-operative Financial Services. The Tower was built in 1962.The building recently underwent a major facelift as it was clad in photovoltaic panels, the UK's largest solar power project to date, which will generate 180,000 kWh per year, or, on average, 21 kW. [Cite web
title = CIS 'Solar Tower' Case Study
work = solarcentury
accessdate = 2007-09-11
url = http://www.solarcentury.com/projects/commercial/cis_solar_tower ( [http://www.google.com/search?q=183000+kilowatt*hour+%2F+1+year+in+kilowatts conversion] )] (Electricity usage per capita in the UK is about 5,000 kWh.) [Cite web
publisher = Energy Information Administration
title = United Kingdom Energy Data
accessdate = 2007-09-11
year = 2006
month = May
url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/United_Kingdom/Full.html ( [http://www.google.com/search?q=346+billion+kWh+/+60+million+in+kWh conversion] )] In 2006, the tower lost its title as the tallest building in Manchester to the Beetham Tower which is 554 ft (169 m) tall. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/3218247.stm "Green light for high living"] , "BBC ",27 October 2003 ]The Tower originally was clad with millions of mosaic tiles, inspired by the buildings of New York such as the
Seagram Tower . However, pollution and numerous repairs had given it a more dull grey than shimmering silver colour. The directors decided to do something to help the problem of climate change. So CIS was set to go solar.The CIS Tower was clad in PV panels at a cost of £5.5 million and started feeding electricity to the
national grid in November 2005. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3956801.stm Building converts to solar power] ] Given the £5.5 million cost and a capacity to power over 75 homes, it averages to an approximate cost of £73,333 per home.References
External links
* [http://www.cis.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?cid=1116834043894&pagename=CoopBank/Page/tplBlank&c=Page Solar Tower] – CIS's Web page about the solar panel project
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